Event two for Alisha in this Paris Olympic cycle. After her success making the DEs at the Legnano World Cup in Nov the target to qualify for a spot at the Olympic Zonal Qualifier in April 2024 is already secured. From now on everything is about gaining more experience competing at an international level before relocating to Australia for two-months, Dec ’23 and Feb ’24, to train.

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Selection for the team was ultimately based on national ranking. Which gave us; Anna-Lise Mion (3rd), Olga Nova (5th) and Megan Xu-Ran Piao (7th). It also maxed-out our female membership as our only other female member Alisha Mullen was competing in Canada. Fortunately for us having the all our female members at the top of the women’s epee rankings means it is a kick ass team. Anna-Lise is the current NI Open Champion, Olga after a season gap has raced up the rankings thanks to a series of medal positions in the first half of the season including; Intermediates 1st, Dublin Epee 2nd, Souths 3rd and Irish Open 3rd. Similarly, Megan has hit her stride this season with medals in the; Intermediates 2nd, Derry Open 3rd and Wests 3rd. If both Olga and Megan continue their current trajectory they will likely join Anna-Lise in the top 5 in the national rankings by the end of the season.

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Brian Boru may be a relatively new club but it already has a great track record and a lot to live up to. In the two Club Championships held since BBFC formed the club has come second both time (see table below for details. There is also a long history over the last twelve years of BBFC members medalling as members of other clubs prior to BBFC formation (see the Appendix A for a full list of results and club member’s participation). The symmetry of winning second twice is done, it’s got to be gold this season.

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Brian Boru members or members adjacent account for the bulk of the men’s team. Current Brian Boru members Dawid Kulka and Duncan Salter are joined by Tom O’Brien who is a founding member of Brian Boru Fencing Club and our first coach. Tom has been living in France for the last few years continuing his Pentathlon training in preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifying cycle.

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Brian Boru members accounted for half of the Epee teams (men’s and women’s), in addition to training mate Isobel-Radford Dodd from Pentathlon Ireland. There is a broad mix of Five Nations experience levels, for women’s Epee Alisha Mullen has been on two of the last three Five Nations squads (England 2016 and Ireland 2019) and Anna-Lise Mion was on the Squad in 2017 when the Five Nations were in Cardiff. This is Isobel’s first Senior Five Nations but she was on the first two Junior Five Nations squads including the last in 2019 held in Maynooth.

For Men’s Epee the Five Nations old lag is Dawid Kulka, who has appeared on two of the last three squads in 2016 (Manchester) and 2017 (Wales) and on the All Ireland Veteran Four Nations squad the last two outings in Dublin (2023) and Bristol (2022). For Duncan Salter this is his first time on the Senior Irish Five Nations squad but has been a regular on the Veteran Four Nations squad for the last 10 years. The Veteran Four Nations doesn’t skip years and have managed two full cycles over the last 10 years. To young yet the Veteran team Tom has like Dawid been on the Senior Squad twice, the last two outings in 2017 and 2019.

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My first impression, it was great fun but it was so ‘fast and furious’ it made Sabre seem like geriatric snail racing. The colloquial name for wheelchair basketball is ‘murderball’, I’m not sure what the equivalent for wheelchair fencing would be but it needs one.

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What matters is quality and the entry standard from Brian Boru remains top notch with members on on-form; Andreea Catalina (1st), Olga Nova (5th) and Megan Xu-Ran Piao (7th). Olga started the season unranked and Megan 18th, thanks to a string of excellent results and a good number of medals they are both racing up the rankings. Olga’s awards so far this season are a gold (Intermediates) and two bronzes (South of Ireland Open and Irish Open). Megan has a silver (intermediates) and also two bronzes (West of Ireland Open and Derry Open). Andrea’s only defeat over the last two seasons was to Alisha at the 2023 West of Ireland Open.

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There are 28 fencers entered in Dawid’s category, with Dawid seeded 8th going into the competition. Ahead of Dawid are three ranked in the Top 5 of the European Veteran rankings, in fact the actual top three fencers in Europe.

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Judging the Category 4s off their post Madrid rankings you can see that of those present there are two of the top 5 ranked epeeists in Europe; No.1 Juan Fernando Damas Flores (ESP) and No.3 Benoit Pincemaille (FRA). The remaining Category 4s are; Bernard Dufau (FRA) No.21, Francois Amanrich (FRA) No.30 and Joao Faria No.43.

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There are 19 fencers entered in Anna-Lise’s category, however presumably due to low numbers in category 3 and 4 events the poules for all three were combined. This meant for the poules there were 29 competing, even though there were only 19 in Anna-Lise’s category. Anna-Lise’s initial European ranking was 102nd seeding her 22nd for the poules. Of the fencers present three were ranked in the European top ten including the No.1 seed Ibolya Hoffmann (HUN) a Category 4 fencer, No.3 Mariette Mason (GBR) a Category 3 and Rosa Cano Diosa (ESP) Category 2.

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Brian Boru members defending the honour of Irish Veterans internationally; Pat Lynch, Anna-Lise Mion and Dawid Kulka. All are competing in different age categories; Dawid is competing in Category 1 (40s), Anna-Lise Category 2 (50s) and Pat Category 4 (70s).

(click the event title to read the profile of Brian Boru members entered)

Alisha starts the 2023/2024 Olympic season with her first FIE international in Italy at the Legnano Epee World Cup. The target for the year is building on previous results, improve her FIE world ranking and qualification for the European Olympic Zonal Championships in April 2024. Fencing Ireland’s qualification criteria for the European Olympic Zonal is to “‘make the cut’ at a World Cup event”. To achieve this goal Alisha has the season’s competitions mapped out, including a two month stretch from Dec ’23 and Feb ’24 in Australia to train.

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